Do younger passengers have any different needs to the rest of us? We have been doing quite a bit of work, especially on bus travel, in relation to this. Not surprisingly one issue that is flagged up more by younger passengers is value for money. We have supplied a lot of the data to the Youth Parliament in relation to their recent very thorough and professional investigation into transport and young people. Our input can be found at:http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/research/publications/youth-select-committee-research-presentation

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Young people cannot drive themselves to the station to catch a train, and make those longer distance journeys. I’ve seen this thoughout the UK with kids and BMX bikes, who want to travel to the honeypot centres, with top rated facilities. We’ve squeezed 8 bikes on to a 70-seat Class 153 and delivered 15% of the passengers between Derby and Uttoxeter, regularly I see 4-6 bikes per train heading in or out of Preston, to use their Arc skatepark, and we go to double figures on the 3 coach Scotrail/SPT trains to Dumbarton East (Unit 23). I’ve many instances of BIXC (Bikes in excess of capacity) where a vast number of seats on the train are empty with cycle users delivering 50% and more of fare paying passengers, strongly making the case for mioving away from the bean counter cram them in approach to seating and provision of flexibility in the internal design of trains and buses, and tailoring the offer, off-peak to attract travel with cycles and fill that space.

Challenging the thinking further up to 10 BMX fans will travel from Banchory to Aberdeen on the coach, co-ordinating to all board the coach at one or two locations to minimise the risk of delays – that’s 20% of the seats filled by young travellers gaining independent personal mobility, in an affordable way. Throughout Scotland, on Oxford Tube, and on several other Stagecoach Express routes, cycle carriage adds to the passenger numbers (2-3% seems about the level for Oxford Tube at peak times). Given the significantly greater coverage of the country by bus and coach services this is a vast area of blocked potential, especially for those who are not permitted to drive a car – young, disabled, old etc.

No longer need the young person be constrained by the cost and paucity of transport choice. Unofficially bikes even go on TfL late night buses, as a practical way to deal with a perceived, if not actual issue of travelling safely late at night when you have been able earlier, to cycle to an event. In a survey of London cyclists 33% of the female respondents said that a facility to put their bike on/in a public transport vehicle for travelling late at night would enable them to make more journeys by bike. TfL might make a start by allowing bikes on the 108 and N108 between North Greenwich/Maze Hill and Bow (through Blackwall Tunnel)